I. Metshin: “Creating a comfortable society for young people is the priority of the youth policy of Kazan”

(KZN.RU, October 27, Ksenia Shvetsova). Today, the Kazan City Hall hosted the final meeting of the participants of the International training seminar “From politics to practice: youth work in support of youth access to social rights”, which took place in Kazan for four days. Now the participants will have to develop further initiatives and planned projects that they came up with for future implementation. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, Damir Fattakhov, the minister of Youth Affairs of the RT, Evgenia Lodvigova, the first deputy head of the Kazan Municipality, and Airat Faizov, the chairman of the Committee on Youth Affairs, attended the meeting.

In total, 52 specialists in youth policy and youth workers from Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, France, Poland, Portugal, and other signatories of the European Cultural Convention took part in the training seminar. The seminar is held by the Council of Europe together with the Russian partners. It is part of the Action Plan for 2018 on the implementation of the Framework Program for Cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth policy for 2014-2018.

Welcoming the participants of the seminar, the head of the capital of Tatarstan noted that Kazan is an active participant in joint educational projects in the course of cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth policy. “We all know how important it is to support young people by facilitating the implementation of youth initiatives. For four days, you received new knowledge, exchanged experiences, and positive practices in youth work. It was important first of all to talk about the general practice in the area of young people’s access to social rights and discuss issues that often go unnoticed. Creating an inclusive society through multicultural dialogue, affordable education, healthcare, high-quality living conditions where young people can comfortably live, develop, create families, achieve their goals is a priority of the youth policy of Kazan”, said I. Metshin. He added that for the capital Tatarstan one of the important projects affecting the issues of social inclusion is the project “Good Kazan”. It is aimed at developing a culture of charity, and also forms the idea of charity being a natural need of citizens. In addition, this project unites the striving of the authorities, public associations and socially unprotected layers of society in creating comfortable conditions for living in the city. “It is proved that effective interaction between local and regional authorities and public associations, as well as youth organizations in the development and implementation of youth policy,  are key components in creating conditions for successful implementation of youth activities”, said I. Metshin. He thanked all the participants of the meeting for the work and the exchange of important experience. He encouraged everyone to share their thoughts on the development of the youth policy sphere. “We are open to your ideas on the access of young people to social rights. We are ready to fully support them, including in the Congress of Europe”, said the head of the city.

The topic of social rights for young people is very relevant for Tatarstan, noted Damir Fattakhov. According to the Minister of Youth, thanks to the seminar held in the city, there was a chance to realize many more useful initiatives. “I am sure that you had a good time at the seminar, exchanged views, and shared your experience. It was very important for us to discuss how to ensure that all young people have equal social rights regardless of their place of residence and social status. A lot of work is being done in this direction in the republic and the capital”, noted D. Fattakhov.

The past seminar became a start for work in the field of youth policy. Many participants agreed that they still have a lot to learn in order to put their knowledge into practice. Thus, Polina Moiseeva, an employee of the Center for Social Services for Children and Youth, said that over the past 4 days, she had found a lot of like-minded people both from Russia and from other countries.

At the end of the meeting, the Mayor of the city presented awards and letters of gratitude to the organizers and active participants of the seminar.

Marina Filaretova, the program coordinator of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, noted that the work of the seminar participants was not completed at this point. Immediately after the meeting, they began to develop follow-up initiatives and planned projects that will be implemented in the future.